Yachting: Scramble on Hobart run-in

CALMS and light winds overnight in the last 60 miles of the 630-mile Sydney-Hobart race scrambled placings with six Volvo 60s, plus the Swedish maxi Nicorette, in contention to win.

At Tasman Island, the last major corner of the course, 41 miles from the finish, the Volvo 60s, using the event as the first stage of leg three to Auckland in their race around the world, held the first four placings.

News Corp, skippered by British sailor Jez Fanstone and flying the Australian flag, was first to round Tasman Island, at 2.42am local time, a minute ahead of Tyco (Kevin Shoebridge, Bermuda) followed 10 minutes later by Amer Sports One (Grant Dalton, Finland/Italy), then Illbruck (John Kostecki, Germany).

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The leading group had east-north-east winds of 4-7 knots as they traversed Storm Bay, heading for the Iron Pot marker at the mouth of the Derwent River, 11 miles from the finish off the Hobart waterfront. They were making speeds of just over two knots.

The river was almost glassy calm, broken by patches of very light north-east breeze. From the Iron Pot to the finish, the yachts would also have to stem the outgoing flow of up to two knots.

Freshening north-west winds along the Tasmanian coast were forecast for the closing stages which could have brought the smaller yachts home quickly to dominate the handicap positions.

At 4am, the Murray Burns and Dovell 66-footer Bumblebee 5, owned by John Kahlbetzer of Sydney and skippered by Iain Murray from the design team, was leading the International Measurement System handicap division, as it had done since jumping ahead from a brilliant start in Sydney harbour.

The Polish maxi Lodka Bols (Gordon Kay), the former Whitbread around-the-world racer Martela, was leading the IRC handicap division from the Volvo 60 Line 7, owned and skippered by Ian Treleaven from Sydney, followed by Icon, a new Perry 65 owned by Richard Robbins of Seattle.

The Volvo Ocean Race yacht Tyco, skippered by Kevin Shoebridge with its syndicate based in Bermuda, has notified the race committee that it is protesting against the decision of the race committee to disqualify it from the Sydney-Hobart race.

The race committee are scoring Tyco as a non-finisher because it had not met the requirements of the mandatory radio safety check-in as the yachts entered Bass Strait. The protest will be heard tomorrow when an international jury assembles in Hobart.